Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that is extremely popular nowadays, so more and more companies start looking for blockchain developers. The number of blockchain jobs has increased last year, growing 207% since 2016. Yet, it is not so easy to find blockchain developers with relevant experience. Before we start discussing the key technical skills that are required from a blockchain developer, we will give you an overview of the blockchain technology.
What Is Blockchain and Its Services?
Blockchain is an open, decentralized ledger that securely records transactions between two parties without third-party authentication. As a company, Blockchain was founded in 2011, and now it provides the following services:
- Cryptocurrency wallets. Blockchain provides a secure platform that the cryptocurrency owners can use to manage their currencies. At the moment the blockchain platform supports two world’s most popular currencies – bitcoin and ether. Blockchain users from all over the world can send and receive cryptocurrency payments through the platform.
- Bitcoin Block Explorer. With this blockchain service users can check the status of any bitcoin transaction. The service gives real-time information on latest blocks and number of transactions per day as well as provides an interactive chart.
- Developer platform. The blockchain developer platform provides free APIs that the bitcoin developers can use to build bitcoin apps. With these APIs, developers can easily integrate blockchain services into their applications, enable cryptocurrency payments from blockchain wallets, check transaction statuses, check the exchange rates and transaction statuses within their application.
Before 2014, blockchain was associated exclusively with bitcoin, but now blockchain technologies are also moving to spheres other than cryptocurrency. For example, now they are used in governmental sector to prevent voter frauds and in healthcare to store patient records. Moreover, according to Reuters, food retailers such as Carrefour, Nestle, Unilever, and Tyson Foods are thinking of using blockchain to improve checks on food products. Other spheres and sectors where blockchain is applied are as follows: Banking, Insurance, Media and Entertainment, and Automotive. More about the technical aspect of the concept you can read in the article ‘Blockchain Explained in Simple English’
Blockchain Developer Technical Skills
If your company is tapping into blockchain, too, then you are probably planning to hire a team of qualified specialists. After you learned where to find blockchain developers you may be uncertain of what you should check during the interview, because this position is relatively new to the market. It requires a specific array of skills that an ordinary software developer may not possess, specifically, the following skills and knowledge:
- Passion for blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies. It may sound self explanatory, but still we would like to emphasize that a competent candidate for a blockchain developer position should be very much familiar with this technology. Understanding of cryptocurrencies also means proficiency with blockchain’s APIs. Most blockchain developers own cryptocurrency wallets and are aware of the latest cryptocurrency market trends. Experience with cryptocurrency mining would be also a plus.
- Ability to think out of the box. Decentralized applications work in a way other than traditional apps. For example, in a decentralized app (dapp) the logic in application and service layer is within all nodes of a smart contract. In case of a centralized application, the logic is in a single cluster of servers. Besides, smart contracts cannot work with centralized systems that require common API calls. Your blockchain developer candidate should be able to keep these differences in mind.
- Familiarity with cryptocurrency platforms such as Ethereum, HyperLedger, Ripple, etc.
- Coding skills with programming languages behind blockchain APIs, such as Python, Java, Golang, C, C++, C#, Ruby, PHP, and Node.
- Understanding of mobile development platforms and technologies, e.g. Kotlin for Android, in case your company is also planning mobile versions of its blockchain based apps.
- Deep knowledge of algorithms, event driven architectures, data structures, data security, cryptography, object oriented analysis, large-scale websites, and decentralized technologies.
- Hands-on experience with Clojure or Solidity, dedicated languages that are used to build smart contracts.
- Extreme attention to detail. If your project is related to finance, be sure to hire an exceptionally reliable blockchain developer, because even a tiny mistake in a cryptocurrency transaction can lead to enormous financial losses.
- Soft skills. According to Peter Smith, CEO & co-founder of Blockchain, people who work at Blockchain should have a range of soft skills that contribute to ability of the company to hire an incredible team. They hire people who are excited about learning something new and open to adventure. They also hire people who are team players and are always ready to help their colleagues. Finally, they hire people with strong views and high level of thoughtfulness. Maybe these recommendations from people behind Blockchain will also help your company to build a team of great blockchain developers.
We hope that now you have a better idea of how to interview a blockchain developer and which skills to look for. Hiring professional blockchain developers is your first step towards the implementation of an innovative technology that has disrupted many spheres of our life. And remember that you should look for blockchain experts on resources that showcase the profiles of exactly this kind of developers. Good luck and happy hiring!
Author: Cryptohire Editorial Team.
Cryptohire is a marketplace for hiring remote blockchain developers managed by top software development firms. Hundreds of developer profiles, including smart contract, cryptocurrency and blockchain engineers – all available to join your team within two weeks. The platform uses three-sided Ethereum-based smart contracts as an additional level of safety and as an option allows you to pay in any cryptocurrency you want.
